On Sunday, May 17, 1999, in Tallinn, Estonia, the world’s 42nd ranked player who was rated well over 2600, 33-year old Lembit Oll committed suicide by jumping out of his fourth floor apartment window. He had been receiving treatment for depression since 1996 as a result of his divorce and the loss of custody of his two sons.
Born on April 23, 1966, he was a player with a classical style yet he seemed especially at home in extremely sharp opening variations. Oll (IM title in 1983, GM title in 1990) had been a promising junior, becoming champion of Estonia in 1982 and junior champion of the Soviet Union in 1984. He also won multiple European and World junior championships. Oll regularly played for Estonia in the chess Olympics and European team championships. He played his last tournament in 1999 in Nova Gorica, sharing second place
The following game against was played in the 1989 USSR Championship. The opening was a sharp line of the Winawer French, going into a sub-variation that had recently become popular at GM level. Thanks in part to a brilliant idea of Oll’s first demonstrated in this game, it didn’t last long. Mikhail Ulibin (born 1971) is a Soviet GM and silver medalist in the World Junior Championship of 1991. He played in the Soviet Union Junior Championships of 1984, 1985 (3rd place),1986,1987 and 1988 where he tied for first with Gata Kamsky.
[Event “USSR Chp, Tbilisi”] [Site “”] [Date “1989.??.??”] [Round “?”] [White “Lembit Oll”] [Black “Mikhail Ulibin”] [Result “1-0”] [ECO “C18”] [Annotator “Stockfish 17.1”] [PlyCount “67”] [EventDate “1989.01.??”] {[%evp 16,67,135,72,251,241,248,237,262,240,245,113,444,435,442,447,452,424, 431,423,463,459,445,438,454,427,741,739,742,723,745,739,746,731,742,742,733, 725,741,731,717,733,710,702,775,762,976,29969,29976,29976,1004,1192,1000,908] C18: French Defense, Winawer Variation} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7. Qg4 O-O 8. Bd3 Nbc6 9. Qh5 h6 {This move is risky, downright bad in fact. So, why did black play it? The fact that it practically loses was not known at the time. Stockfish spits the winning 10.Bxh6 almost immediately, but even after several minutesd the old (prior to 2008) Rybka 2.3. 2 multi_processor version evaluates the position as equal after 10.Bxh6. Black’s best is 10…Ng6 after which whute still has an active position.} 10. Bxh6 {Without question best. 10. g4 (was tried by British GM Nigel Short the previous year, but it only resulted in a draw:} gxh6 11. Qxh6 {Black only has one move that avoids mate. but is allows the elimination of his K’s lone defender and leaves his K’s position in ruins.} Nf5 12. Bxf5 {[%mdl 128]} exf5 13. Nh3 {White needs quick development, but even stronger was a R-lift after castling Q-side/} (13. O-O-O Re8 14. Rd3 Re6 15. Rg3+ Rg6 16. Rxg6+ fxg6 17. Qxg6+ {and now white can bring the N into play with 18.Nh3 and black will be helpless no matter what he does.}) 13… f6 {[%mdl 8192] Except for 13…Qg4 this is probably the worst move he could have played.} (13… Qe7 {allows him to play on with some hope of equalizing.} 14. O-O-O cxd4 15. Rd3 Nxe5 16. Rg3+ Ng4 17. Nf4 dxc3 18. Kb1 {Black has gobbled up some materail and defended against a mating attack, but white is still better after…} Qxa3 (18… Re8 19. Nxd5 {The only defense against a N check on f6 is…} (19. Nh5 {falls short.} f6 {Now is the time for this.} 20. h3 d4 21. hxg4 Qe1+ 22. Qc1 Qxc1+ 23. Kxc1 Kf7 24. gxf5 {White’s attack has been beaten back and he has established material equality, but in the process black hab equalized.}) 19… Qe1+ 20. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 21. Ka2 Be6 22. Qg5+ {Black does not have quite enough for is Q, but at the same time white has no forced win.}) 19. Qg5+ Kh7 20. Rh3+ Nh6 21. Rxh6#) 14. Qg6+ Kh8 15. Qh6+ Kg8 16. Qg6+ Kh8 {Is white going to take a draw?! Of course bit! He probably repeated moves to gain time in the clock.} 17. O-O-O {A move rarely seen in the Winawer. It’s good here because black has no attack at all at the moment and white now nas the potential for a R-lift via d3.} fxe5 18. Qh6+ Kg8 19. Qg6+ {Gaoning more clock time.} Kh8 20. Rd3 f4 21. Qh6+ Kg8 22. Qg6+ Kh8 23. Qh6+ {Gaining even more time on the clock! } Kg8 {All of a sudden white seems stymied as there appears to be no way to continue the attack.} 24. Rg3+ {[%mdl 512] This brilliant move gets the other R into play and keeps fis winnign attack going.} (24. Ng5 {fails badly againsr} Bf5 25. Rh3 {Of course the R can’t be taken because of Qh7#} Qf6 {and it’s black that has a decisive advantage.}) 24… fxg3 25. Qg6+ Kh8 26. hxg3 Qh4 { This just prolongs the game a bit.} (26… Qe7 27. Ng5+ {[%emt 0:00:02] mates in}) 27. gxh4 Bf5 28. Qh6+ Kg8 29. Ng5 exd4 30. Rh3 {[%mdl 512] Jopiong to draw away the lone defender. If not, the R gets into play.} Ne5 31. Rg3 Bg6 32. Ne6 Kf7 33. Nxf8 Rxf8 34. Qf4+ {Black resigned. A brilliant game by Oll.} 1-0
